Winded
by EmberForge
Summary: Skye and Coulson run into some unexpected trouble on a mission. When Skye gets hurt and starts panicking, Coulson does his best to help her out.
1. Chapter 1

"It was safe haven for scholars during the war."

Two pairs of shoes clicked against stone as Skye and Coulson made their way down the dimly lit corridor of the church basement. "At a time when sharing the wrong ideas could lead to death, men from all over came here to communicate without fear of persecution," Coulson continued. "From what Connolly's told us, the artifact should be hidden somewhere in the library."

"And by artifact, you mean the creepy bird statue," Skye said.

"You could call it that, yes."

"Well, this shouldn't be too difficult, anyways. I mean, how hard can finding one small statue be?"

The pair finally stopped in front of an old wooden door. Coulson pushed it open and observed the room in front of them. Bookcases filled practically every square inch of the large space, groaning under the weight of thousands of ancient looking books and trinkets. Sunlight filtered in through small stained glass windows set high up in the walls, and the room smelled of dust and mildew. He gave Skye a dry look.

"We can split up?" She suggested.

"Ideally we wouldn't. Not all the minds that have visited this place have been good, and there's no telling what might be hidden in these shelves. Unfortunately, our time limit makes it so that we don't have a choice. You take that side of the room, I'll take this side, and we'll work our way to the middle. Call out if you find something, and remember- be careful."

"Got it, AC."

He watched for a moment as Skye started to make her way across the room before he turned towards his own side. Browsing the shelves was very slow going. There didn't seem to be any sort of organizational pattern, and things were very often shoved behind or on top of other things. After a while, Coulson almost found himself becoming bored by the monotony of their searching- at least, as bored as he could get while still being cautious.

It was about twenty minutes later that Coulson heard a triumphant shout, pulling him instantly into alertness. "I found it!" Skye's voice echoed above the shelves. Coulson quickly abandoned his work, weaving his way towards the sound of her voice. He eventually turned the corner to see Skye standing in front of a bookcase that had been shoved into the corner of the room. She was reaching up towards a high shelf for the statue when he heard Fitz's voice on his comm.

 _"Sir, Connolly didn't tell us everything. Whatever you do, don't touch that thing, it's a tra-"_

A wave of energy pulsed through the room, sweeping Coulson off his feet. He just barely managed to roll out of the way as a bookcase crashed to the ground right where he had fallen. Static buzzed in his ear, and he only allowed himself a moment as the room settled to catalogue his injuries (just some scrapes and bruises, nothing serious) before scrambling to his feet. He looked around wildly for a glimpse of familiar brown hair amongst all the debris.

"Skye? Skye!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Skye? Skye!"

She tries to call out to him, to say something - anything - but the words won't come. She can barely breathe as it is, and manages to make a pitiful noise that sounds something like a whimper. She hopes it's enough.

It is.

Footsteps quickly make their way in her direction, and soon rubble is being swept off her. She managed to avoid being crushed by any bookcases (thank god) but hadn't been able to avoid being hurled into one. She blinks away the dust that's been thrown up by the chaos to see Coulson kneeling in front of her, but she can still barely make a sound, and can only gasp out "Can't" between small, painfully labored breaths.

He understands her. She doesn't protest as he pulls up her shirt, (there's no time for modesty, not when it hurts and she can't breathe) and familiar hands are sweeping across her ribs, lightly pressing on the dark bruises that are already forming. A sound escapes between breaths as she flinches at the pain and tries to shift away, but he just gently shushes her and quickly continues is examination. It's done in a matter of seconds, though to her it feels like hours. She feels his hands pull her shirt down and move away only to come up to cup her face. "Skye, look at me."

She didn't even realize that she had closed her eyes. She opens them to see Coulson's own gaze looking back at her in concern. "Nothing's broken or fractured. You had the wind knocked out of you, which is why you couldn't breathe initially, but now your panic is making it worse. I know it feels like you can't breathe, but you can. Just copy my breathing, okay? Deep breaths, in and out."

He exaggerated the rising and falling of his chest, moving one of his hands from her face in order to bring her own up to feel his breathing. His steady heartbeat pulsed under her fingertips as she tried to copy his breathing. It was difficult, but she slowly managed to get her breathing to slow down. Coulson noticed the improvement and smiled. "That's it. Good." He didn't stop until he was sure she had her breathing back under control. He then slowly pulled away, shifting into a crouch in front of her. "Are you okay now?"

She flushed with embarrassment. "Yeah. Sorry about, um. That."

He stood up, dusting off the knees of his slacks before offering a hand down to her. "There's nothing to be sorry for. It was a natural reaction."

She took his hand, wincing as she pulled herself up. "So," she said, carefully rubbing her sore ribs as she surveyed the damage to the room, "Looks like the door's blocked. How are we going to-"

A giant rumbling sound filled the air. Skye clenched her hands into fists, worried for a moment that some sort of second wave was coming, but then they both looked on in surprise as the door and a good portion of the wall around it crumbled, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.

"Don't worry!" A voice called out. "It's not a load bearing wall!"

"Fitz! Perfect timing," Skye exclaimed as the curly haired man maneuvered his way into the room, Ward following close behind him.

"We were on our way as soon as Connolly let it slip that the statue wasn't completely harmless," the specialist said. "We were hoping to arrive in time to prevent any occurrences from happening, but I guess that didn't work out."

"Not quite," Coulson responded.

"Are either of you hurt?"

"Skye has some bruising that Simmons should take a look at when we get back to the Bus, but other than that we're more or less fine."

"That's good to hear," Fitz chimed in, looking up from the readings he was taking from the statue. "Okay Ward, you should be good to handle it. It looks to have some sort of biological trigger mechanism, so as long as you don't touch it with your bare skin, you're fine."

Ward nodded, picking the statue up with gloved hands and storing it away in a case that he had carried in with him for that purpose. Fitz put the scanner back in its own case, and as a group they began to make their way out of the building.

Skye suddenly grabbed Coulson's hand and stopped, making him fall behind with her until they were out of earshot from the others. "I just wanted to say... thanks. For helping me out back there."

He gave her a fond smile as he brought his hand to her shoulder, squeezing it affectionately. "Anytime."

Skye smiled back at him. It was one word, but to her it meant so much more.


End file.
